Following complaints from Pattaya residents, Thai police launched an operation against beggars that resulted in the discovery of many foreigners.
Several residents living near Walking Street in the southern resort town of Pattaya have revealed to local media that they are increasingly exasperated by migrant beggars.
They said the beggars, some of whom carried babies to attract sympathy, wandered around Pattaya's crowded tourist destinations and tried to forcefully sell flowers and candy to international tourists.
According to them, this disturbs tourists and damages the reputation of the seaside resort.
A crackdown was therefore carried out by the Pattaya authorities on the evening of Wednesday, June 21, to rid the city's lively tourist district of beggars.
The operation uncovered a surprising number of illegal immigrants residing in the country.
Wutthisak Ruemkijjakarn, deputy mayor of Pattaya, revealed that the crackdown took place under the watchful eye of many authorities.
These included officials from the Chon Buri Social Development and Human Security Office, Pattaya Local Police, Provincial Police Region 2 and representatives from the Immigration Office.
The raids targeted several tourist areas where beggars were found.
One of those locations was Pattaya's iconic Walking Street, where officials apprehended two individuals as part of the operation, according to Wutthisak.
Pattaya walking street. Photo: Pattaya Sanook
He also highlighted the recent and notable increase in the number of beggars in the city due to the strong return of foreign tourists.
The Pattaya authorities' net extended to Soi Buakhao, where they encountered a 42-year-old Vietnamese woman.
Accompanied by a seven-year-old girl, this woman was trying to sell flowers to tourists.
She revealed to the agents that this had been her routine for five months and that she earned between 300 and 500 baht (7.79 to 13 euros) per evening.
Meanwhile, in South Pattaya, similar scenes unfolded as police rounded up beggars on the beach who had been seen asking tourists for money.
Among them, a 34-year-old homeless Cambodian woman was found with her five-month-old daughter in front of Wat Chai Mongkhon.
See also: Cambodian gang used very young children to beg in Thailand
On June 10, Pattaya Police Chief Thanapong Pothi had already carried out a large-scale operation aimed at apprehending those guilty of child exploitation in the form of forced begging or selling products in the city.
During this mission, a 33-year-old woman, also from Cambodia, was discovered living in a tiny one-room apartment with three children.
She confessed to authorities that she had crossed the Thai border illegally in search of work.
Accused of child exploitation and illegal entry into Thailand, her case has become a reflection of a larger problem that has arisen during the crackdown in Pattaya.
Residents of the seaside resort believe there is an organized operation behind these beggars, as these groups of foreigners have already been apprehended several times, but they always return to repeat the same crimes.
Additionally, questions arise about the origin and status of the children, as some of the women involved have been there for years, but still seem to have a newborn with them.
See also:
Begpacker: Backpacker beggars return to Thailand and the rest of Asia
Operation in Pattaya against sex workers and the homeless
Why should tourists avoid wearing a gold necklace in Thailand?
Transgender women continue to attack tourists in Pattaya, Thailand
Source: The Thaiger , The Pattaya News
Prepare your trip to Thailand
Book bus, train, or boat in Thailand
Manage your money while traveling with Wise
If our news, tourist information, or cultural content has been useful to you and you'd like to thank us:
You can follow us on:
Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google News
Or install our app:
Install the Toute la Thaïlande app on your smartphone
⚠️ Cryptocurrencies involve risks: Invest only what you are willing to lose.
4 comments
Apart from the problem of isolated people in an illegal situation, without the possibility of finding declared work and forced to beg, there is very probably, as the article points out, a problem of exploitation of human beings, adults, minors, young children, including babies...
And it is not by arresting, prosecuting, convicting or expelling those who are on the streets that the police will solve the problem.
We must trace the chain and arrest the sponsors and organizers of this trafficking and help illegal street beggars to return to their country or, if they wish, regularize their situation so that they can find legal work and escape this vicious circle of human exploitation.
Some of these beggars are the visible end of this human trafficking and are more exploited victims than dangerous criminals...
The criminals responsible are invisible and well protected...
Absolutely, and the current trend may suggest that there is a fairly good chance that it is a Chinese criminal group, again, although a Thai or Cambodian group is not excluded.
On the other hand, I think you are too optimistic to think that the Thai government will regularize and help foreigners in difficulty.
They are already failing to properly help their own citizens in difficulty, as we saw recently with the case of a blind grandmother living in a dilapidated shack with her granddaughter, who only received around twenty euros a month (if I remember correctly) in social assistance from the government.
Absolutely right, Bob…
Social laws in Thailand have never been a priority for any government.
On the other hand, corporate taxation, the economic facilities granted to the country's large eco-financial groups and consortiums and the personal enrichment of certain politicians, coupled with widespread corruption from the police force to the top of the judicial hierarchy, including high-ranking officers of the Army, together constitute the backbone of a national policy that boils down to a struggle (going as far as riots close to civil war and the establishment of military power) for power between right-wing conservatives and ultra-monarchists on the one hand and progressives on the other, declaring themselves center-left and "close to the people"...
We saw what happened in the past when the Sinawathra family was in power.
The recent elections tend to present a new alliance for a change of power and a placing in opposition of the nomenklatura loyal to the Army and the Royalty... but for how long and above all: will this "change" presented as radical by the new political leaders and their respective parties - 8 in total united in a coalition for the moment theoretical - (who are already arguing over the designation of the "chairman" of the future parliament) keep its electoral promises?
This already looks like, while the appointment of the Prime Minister seems to pose a problem of eligibility, a basket of crabs ready to devour each other for the key positions of a government which may never see the light of day!!!
Obvious lack of maturity and as usual, we are not learning from the mistakes of the past!
Indeed. We'll see what happens, but I think the weeds in Thailand will be difficult to uproot.
Let's hope that it will come true one day, even if it's in small, timid steps.